Oil

ARTICLES ABOUT OIL BY DATE - PAGE 2

SINGAPORE: Oil prices stabilised in Asia Monday following sharp gains in the previous session as dealers predicted the end of volatile trading and the beaten-down commodity bottoming out, analysts said. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for April delivery fell 37 cents to $49.39 while Brent crude eased 28 cents to $62.30 in late-morning trade. WTI advanced $1.59 while Brent gained a hefty $2.53 on Friday. WTI, after having fallen in early 2015 to a six-year low, has swung wildly in February, but finished the month a little more than $1.50 higher.

NEW DELHI: India slashed its Iranian oil imports in February to a 1-1/2-year low to keep annual volumes from Tehran near the previous fiscal year's levels and within the limits allowed under a deal aimed at curtailing the OPEC nation's nuclear programme. India, Iran's top client after China, shipped in about 102,200 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and condensate from Tehran in February, the lowest since July 2013, and down 63 per cent from January and 62 per cent from a year ago, according to tanker arrival data from trade sources and ship tracking services on the Thomson Reuters terminal.

SINGAPORE: US crude futures fell towards $49 a barrel on Monday after rising more than $1 in the previous session to close February with the first monthly gain since June last year. Economic data from manufacturing activity in China to jobs in the United States will dominate investors' radar this week.

NEW DELHI: As many as 57 cases of pilferage of crude oil during transportation have been reported so far this financial year, up from 47 cases in the previous year, government said today. During the current fiscal till February, 57 incidents of were detected and the cases are being pursued by the concerned oil marketing companies, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in Lok Sabha during Question Hour. He said 47 similar cases of pilferage were reported during 2013-14 in different parts of the country.

NEW DELHI: State-owned gas utility GAIL India is unwilling to sign any agreement with Iranian companies for sourcing of gas because of the fear of US sanctions, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today. GAIL had in 2005 signed an agreement with National Iranian Gas Export Corporation (NIGEC) for import of 7.5 million tons a year of gas in its liquid form (LNG) from Iran. It was also a signatory for receipt of gas via the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline.

NEW DELHI: Barring duty rejig for petrol and diesel, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley did not mention the high profile oil and gas sector in his Budget speech yesterday. This happened against the backdrop of certain inputs by the Petroleum Ministry being found among the stacks of stolen documents. Jaitley, presenting the Budget for 2015-16 yesterday in the Lok Sabha, did not mention of any initiative in the oil and gas sector other than an excise duty rejig on petrol and diesel to make available Rs 40,000 crore for roads and highway construction.

NEW DELHI: State-run oil firms including Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will invest over Rs 76,565 crore on the project expansion during 2015-16, up 5 per cent over the previous fiscal. ONGC, the nation's most profitable company, will see its capital expenditure rise to Rs 36,249.37 crore as compared with Rs 34,813 crore in the current fiscal, according to the Budget 2015-16 document. Its overseas investment arm, ONGC Videsh Ltd, will invest another Rs 10,402 crore in 2015-16.

NEW DELHI: The government on Saturday proposed reduction of customs duty on some petrochemical intermediaries that could marginally reduce their prices, but refrained from announcing dramatic policy changes in the oil and gas sector, leaving some companies a little disappointed. "The finance minister has not addressed many of our genuine expectations," said LK Gupta, MD & CEO of Essar Oil . "We wanted the government to remove basic custom duty on imported natural gas, currently at 5%, as it is an inverted duty.

Oil prices have probably touched bottom and should recover in the second half of 2015 as the collapse in the market over the last year begins to curb production, a Reuters survey of analysts showed on Friday. Oversupply is likely to keep a lid on oil over the next few months, and prices could retreat a little in the short term, the 34 economists and analysts contributing to this month's Reuters poll said. But the market ought to see sustained rallies later this year, bringing North Sea Brent crude futures to an average of $59 a barrel in 2015 and to $71.80 in 2016.